Monday, January 18, 2010

Jury Duty?

This legs table was in a bail bonds window near the courthouse.

Wacky weekend around here but now we're grounded because the biggest rain of the season is supposed to slam Los Angeles all week. We'll see if that's true. It's raining now and still dark out. Glad I'm in the middle of "Gone with the Wind" which I'm enjoying.

All last week I dutifully called in to see if I had to report next day for jury duty. Thursday night I thought I'd gotten off the hook for at least a year, but no, had to show up at 8:30 the next morning. Spent the whole day reading "Gone with the Wind" in a big room with several hundred unhappy people. Around 3:15, when the room was nearly cleared out, they called the last group of potential jurors and we shuffled across the courtyard and upstairs to room F in the criminal court building.

The judge asked for a juror pool of more than 100 people for one case. That's unusual. If I get chosen I can't say more about it, but they aren't doing the selection until next Thursday.

We (last jury pool group) sat in the courtroom behind the FOUR defendants accused of extortion and murder. Two had big shaved heads and skull tattoos, and two were Russian looking in leather coats. Central casting!

Do you suppose their appearance might affect the outcome of the case? It's like with Phil Spector- why didn't his lawyer tell him not to wear the Bozo Clown fright wig to trial? That wasn't his hair. When he checked into jail he just had a little flat hairstyle and looked like an old retired raisin.

Then to add to weekend fun we took a quick trip out to Santa Anita and watched some horses run, came home and went to the Golden Globe party given by Paramount. I was on the guest list- insane, we don't know why.

I thought I'd post my twitter tweets. Many people are bewildered by twitter but I enjoy it and it doesn't track you the same way Facebook does. The 140 maximum letters per post make it challenging but more fun. A weird thing on twitter if a person is trying to tell a story is the sequence is backwards since you read the last post first.

These are my tweets (corrected in order) when we got home:

we only stayed for four races cause we're going to Paramount's Golden Globe party tonite woowoo. Told hub to bet Rummysecretwar - good..

(next day)Just realized the weird guy with the icky face tattoo we stood next to last night at the Golden Globes Paramount party was Mike Tyson.

Somehow I only managed to identify the guy celebs, but there were many gorgeous women there too. The oddest dress was an absolute lampshade style. Strapless white bouffant with a ruffle on the bottom, which barely covered the bottom. The slightest move and you saw her black underpants. No lightbulb underneath.There was a pretty strict no photos policy at the party, even outside with the line of valet parkers. With cel phones they can easily pop a shot just like a papparazi.

8 comments:

Wow- from jury duty to the Chateau Marmont with the stars! Are any of them fans of your work?I've never run into movie stars in public (unless you count O.J.) I don't recognize them out of context. One friend knows Leonardo DeCaprio through another friend, but dislikes him.Have you read Gone with the Wind before?

Ooh. I got a jury summons this week, too. I'm thinking of pleading 'I can't come. I've got work to do and you only intend to offer me $15 a day. Boo hoo.' I like to be a good citizen, though, to make up for being too much me when I was younger. Hm.

Well that party invitation mystery can just go on being a mystery, can't it, as long as they gave you Mac and Cheese. I don't know how it's possible to like that as much as I do, but ... I love the Chateau Marmont and have pretty fond memories.

Namowal, I read 'Gone with the Wind' as a teenager and loved it but read it as a teenager, thinking Scarlett was the heroine we were supposed to identify with, and I did.

It's more sophisticated than that. Even though she's the heroine the author doesn't seem to like her that much and goes out of her way to portray Scarlett as shallow and not very smart and very manipulative.

The character Rhett Butler has a shockingly informed and modern view of the Civil War and the old South. He's not just Clark Gable.

If you feel a little foggy about the Civil War it will quickly bring you up to speed. I've been surprised how many scenes I remember, and character names, and not from the movie.

Booda baby, I went to a party two weeks ago where mac n cheese was also the main course, but I think the hostess had snuck amaretti cookies into the bread crumb topping. yum.

prb, (Jane) I thought I saw Thelma and called out: "T" at a woman who looked about the right match except maybe taller, and she gave me a look of "I DON'T know you."

stray, I believe twitter is focused on "trending topics" rather than the individual. With my horse racing pals it can be a lot of fun.

Hi Sally,I read Gone with the Wind when I was in my early twenties. I agree that Scarlet is Exhibit A of a heroine that isn't very heroic. I remember her as childishly self centered, and, as you said, very manipulative. One of those She did what!? characters.